Tenant may have saved lives in North Bergen fire that displaced 100 people

NORTH BERGEN - When a fire erupted Saturday at a five-story building at 92nd Street and Kennedy Boulevard, third-floor resident Maria Ferrera was one of the first tenants to smell smoke.

Ferrera said she walked up to the fourth floor and immediately realized heavy smoke was coming from the fifth floor. She didn’t panic. Instead, she began shouting “fire!” and knocked on doors to roust tenants on the third and fourth floors.

Her actions were described as heroic and may have helped save the lives of some of the 100 tenants displaced by the fire.

Ferrera, a 61-year-old home health aide, said in her 30 years living at the building she had never experienced anything like this.

“I don’t have any clothes to wear except for this T-shirt they gave me,” she said, referring to the white T-shirts that the Red Cross distributed. “But we are all in this situation. Other people have kids that have to go to school.”

Ferrera spent Saturday night at the high school. The Red Cross yesterday put her up in a motel.

“I’ve been stressed out since yesterday,” she said, standing outside the 92nd Street building. “They gave us food vouchers for a couple days but what’s going to happen after that?”

errera said she will have to suspend her routine of sending packages of books, shoes, and other items to friends and relatives in the Dominican Republic. Her gifts all went up in flames.

“I used to send these packages of sandals and books for the kids every month. And now it’s all gone. I saved for weeks to send it in bulk,” she said.

Third-floor tenant Fatima Santana said she is grateful to have a neighbor like Ferrera.

“I was in my apartment watching television when I heard a knock on my door, and then I heard all the commotion when I looked into the hallway,” said Santana. “I know she (Ferrera) was telling everybody about the fire and knocking on doors. I’m glad she got to me.”